I may have made a mistake? juice/pellets

So I found this all natural fruit juice things for kids, no sugar, no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial flavors... just 100% juice and I started pouring little bits in a water bottle lid for clark to drink. He stopped eating his pellets so much when we hang out in the man cave. (He eats pellets fine in his cage).

I cut back on it and now he's eating pellets more, but if the bottle is around he's like doing the claw dig, lean forward "point" at the bottle.

So does it matter so much if his nutrition is liquid or pellet form? there are no weight issues, but I'm thinking about removing the juice sippy drinks all together.....or is it just as healthy.

The sugar content is probably pretty high, so I would watch that (even if it is all natural). I think the nutrition in his pellets is likely superior (as they usually contain amino acids etc), so I wouldn't substitute juice for pellets unless you were dealing with a very ill bird who needed calories badly. In moderation, I am assuming it is okay, but not if he eats less because of it. I am no vet; that is just my take on the situation.


Also--the nutrients in juice decrease significantly from the time of opening (the vitamins etc break-down somehow)..So when juicing or buying juice, the contents at the time of juicing/opening are changed significantly within less than 24 hours.

Fruitjuice is a poor substitue for real pieces of fruit, but if that is the best you can do...

I allow mine to sip from a small cup if I have some, but if I fill their waterbottle with it (testing, not habbit) they wil just drink and drink and drink -> and that is waaaay to much sugar.

Parrots love a sweet taste almost as much as we humans do, and will start to ignore everything else.

Most 'all natural' juices still are made from concentrates - so are not really freshly pressed juice anyway (they add vitamins after diluting). If you want to give your parrot fruitjuice - just make some.
(Oranges are easy!)


You are talking tiny amounts (bottlecap) - and thats okay for snacking of course just don't let it replace the real food.

The actual fruit would be healthier than the juice.

Perhaps restricted to a treat once in a while in the man-cave? But regular servings are definitely too much sugar unless you have a hummingbird!

Yeah, you cannot "replace" his pellets with either fruit juice or fruit, or veggies for that matter. His pellets are where he's getting protein, his vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc. And even if you're only talking as a small treat and not actually "replacing" his regular, daily amount of pellets that he should be eating each day, fruit in any form is loaded with "natural" sugar, meaning fructose. So when you see a fruit juice that is labeled "all-natural", "organic", or "no sugar added", that in no way means that it contains no sugar, it's actually loaded with sugar because it was made from real fruit...And if you see a fruit juice that is labeled as being "Sugar-Free", then that means that it contains some type of artificial sweetener, which is also no good at all..

So the bottom line here is that everything is okay in moderation, it's alright to give him fruit or fruit juice as a treat (fresh fruit is better than the juice), but you cannot actually substitute fruit/juice, nor veggies for his pellets, nor replace a portion of his regular, daily amount of pellets with fruit or fruit juice, as fruit/fruit juice nor veggies contain the same, necessary nutrition that the pellets provide him every day..

ChristaNL said:

Fruitjuice is a poor substitue for real pieces of fruit, but if that is the best you can do...

I allow mine to sip from a small cup if I have some, but if I fill their waterbottle with it (testing, not habbit) they wil just drink and drink and drink -> and that is waaaay to much sugar.

Parrots love a sweet taste almost as much as we humans do, and will start to ignore everything else.

Most 'all natural' juices still are made from concentrates - so are not really freshly pressed juice anyway (they add vitamins after diluting). If you want to give your parrot fruitjuice - just make some.
(Oranges are easy!)


You are talking tiny amounts (bottlecap) - and thats okay for snacking of course just don't let it replace the real food.

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I agree.
The fruit is a whole food. Once it’s in juice form the fiber is gone and the sugar is more concentrated. I only give Levi organic whole fruit and minimal at that.

I agree appreciatively with everybody above. And I hardly had to lift a finger!

See if he'll like juicy types of fruits like ripe mango and cantaloupe. Both are quite high in Vitamin A (great for parrots). When I serve it to my sun conure, he takes a big glomp and sucks on the pulp, eats some of it then spits out for another fresh glomp. Watch natural sugar content even though it's fruit. He might also like juicy veggies like red bell pepper, also very high in vitamin A with a little less sugar content.

BoomBoom said:

See if he'll like juicy types of fruits like ripe mango and cantaloupe.

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Also add pomegranate to the list, but beware of juice splashes when conure chews the bits!

could potentially be a good tool for the future to get him eating new things, Or even better as a thing to mix with any medicines if he ever needs them to mask the taste. I've heard Baytril or however it's spelt is very bitter and many birds hate it, but when mixed with juice they gulp it down

thanks everyone. I've found if I don't leave the bottle out he doesn't pine for it so much but I still offer it as a treat when he's good.

If I were you I'd just stop drinking juice and stop letting Clark have it also. Juice (unless used at a substitute for meals in a juice cleanse) is honestly terrible for you and Clark. Even without added sugar it is still funny or sugar. I look at juice as more of a dessert than a drink...like should I have a reeses or a juice...yes that's how much sugar it has.

Sunnyclover said:

If I were you I'd just stop drinking juice and stop letting Clark have it also. Juice (unless used at a substitute for meals in a juice cleanse) is honestly terrible for you and Clark. Even without added sugar it is still funny or sugar. I look at juice as more of a dessert than a drink...like should I have a reeses or a juice...yes that's how much sugar it has.

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Well-said Sunny...I think people often interchange fresh fruit with fresh veggies, like they are equally "healthy" choices in regular, daily foods, but they are obviously forgetting about the tons and tons of natural sugars that are found in ALL fruits, including Tomatoes...Fructose, Dextrose, etc. It all ends-up being turned-into fat and being stored in the liver as fat, and is no different than how that process happens when they eat sunflower seeds, peanuts/other nuts, etc. Fresh Vegetables on the other hand not only don't contain anywhere close to the amount of natural sugar that Fruit does, but they also contain a lot more overall "nutrition" in the form of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and in a lot of cases even protein.

I kind of read Clark's initial post wrong the first time I think, I thought he was talking about actually "replacing" his pellets with fresh fruit and fruit juice, which obviously cannot be done; if you were to actually "replace" a bird's STAPLE-DIET of either pellets of seeds with nothing but fresh fruit, you're talking a dead bird within a couple of months, as they would waste away to nothing...They wouldn't be getting any protein at all, and the only calories they would be taking-in would be from carbs (sugars) and a bit of fiber, so they would rapidly lose weight...Even birds such as the Electus and Lories need a ton of fresh veggies along with the fresh fruit, and they usually also get fresh grains, legumes, rice, etc. Plus, you'd end-up with a Diabetic bird pretty quickly as well...

nope it's just a treat and I've been cutting him off more. He gets a few sippy cups and so does Zod when I first get home a t 6-7am after work because ....well I love them. But it's not everyday and only some sips.